I​t is a great honour for me to receive this award from the “Path to Peace” Foundation, here at the seat of the United Nations in New York.

With this prestigious Prize, you are also honouring a country I feel proud to represent.

The search for peace is a universal yearning. The Catholic Church has historically committed itself to achieve a peaceful global order, based on universal human rights and respect for human dignity.

It is a vision very close to our hearts and minds. In fact, some of the best Spaniards have decisively contributed to this vision throughout history.

Just outside this building there is a monument consecrated to the father of modern International Law, Father Francisco de Vitoria.

Together with other members of the School of Salamanca, Father Vitoria laid the legal and moral foundations for an international order, conceived as a commonwealth of shared values and rules.

The ultimate goal of such a commonwealth, or Totus Orbis in Vitoria’s expression, was the common good of all humankind, irrespective of our differences.

And there is no higher common good, here on this earth, than Peace.

Peace does not simply happen. Peace has to be demanded, negotiated and implemented when needed. This is the calling of the United Nations, and there is no higher calling on this earth than the search for Peace

We have to bring peace to the battlegrounds, where so many lives are lost or shattered.

We have to bring peace to our politics, to our families, to our thoughts and deeds as individuals responsible for the greater good of our communities.

We have to bring peace to our schools, so that every child, and in particular every girl, can have access to the wonders of knowledge without fear or discrimination.

We have a moral obligation to guarantee that every single boy and girl, everywhere in the world, can learn in peace of body and mind.

We must ensure that schools are untouchable and remain untouched. Schools must be sacred premises, for in them our children can grow and fulfill their promise of life.

But Peace does not simply happen. It has to be demanded, negotiated and implemented when needed.

This is the calling of the United Nations, and there is no higher calling on this earth than the search for Peace.

And now on this occasion, thanks to the “Path to Peace” Foundation, the voices of the Church and the United Nations come together as two powerful universal voices for Peace.